Friday, April 15, 2011

The Wall Street Professional's Survival Guide Book Review by ChristineMM

Summary Statement: Ideally You Need to Read This Before You Lose Your Job – A Very Helpful Book

What I’d really like the potential reader to know is to read this book before you think you might need it.
Everyone on Wall Street knows things are different today than they were ten years ago. The instability and changes combined with attitudes and policy being put forth by our federal government leave employees feeling apprehensive and unsteady about their careers. (At the time I’m writing this the federal government is unable to agree on a new budget, we have large deficits and raising taxes on individuals is back on the table.)

Why you need to read this before you think you may need it is because Cohen suggests a strategy for how to react the moment the bad news is given and how to negotiate and what to ask for in the severance package (if you are unable to persuade them to change their minds). If the tactic works, this could benefit you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in severance pay and more if they agree to add some months of medical insurance coverage to your severance package. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the book until that part of the process had already happened to my husband. Wall Street people are often already working hard and long hours actually doing the job to read a book about a topic they HOPE they won’t need to know about. My message to you is: READ IT NOW.

Onto the job search…a major take-away is developing your story and how you should market and package yourself. The book also guides the reader through self evaluation to help figure out what positions in which type of companies they would be a best fit for. There are exercises to help you determine your strengths and your interests in an attempt to guide you to look for positions in the most ideal area (versus perhaps just doing the same position you did at your last job).

The tone of the writing is uplifting (which is appreciated because the actual job search can be daunting and is exhausting). There is a lot of useful information here for the price. Depending on what you already know some of this could be old news and some will be new and useful. Consults with resume writers and interview skills coaches and similar consultant services can run hundreds of dollars per hour, so you really can’t lose much by investing in this comparatively low-cost book. If you learn just one or two good things from this reading this book, your money will have been well spent.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Amazon.com's Vine program. I was under no obligation to grant it a favorable review nor was I paid to write it or to blog it. For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link at the top of my blog's sidebar.